Day 18: Power 6

Welcome, everybody, to day 18 in our 30-day challenge and day six in our theme of power. I wonder how you're feeling after our last few routines. I know my body was feeling it a little bit after the twists, and I noticed that I needed a lot more water than I expected, so you might want to get a little bit more water in than usual after that routine and today. Today, to round out all of the things we've been doing so far from strength and balance, now through power, we have what I'm going to call a standing pose bonanza. This is going to be fun, it's going to be a lot of work, but I think you're going to really enjoy it.

We'll bring in the elements of earth, of air, and of course, that internal heat, that fire. We're going to start at the front of the mat, and I do want to make sure you have two blocks, a strap, and a blanket for a pillow when we finish everything out. Looking at the front of the mat, we'll have the feet hip width. We're going to start this slow. Let's bring the palms together in front of the chest or any other position that allows you to bring your attention inside.

Close your eyes, a little internal scan, the physical, the mental, noticing your environment, your breathing, and open your eyes, release your arms. We'll start with an inhale, arms come overhead, exhale, bend the knees, take your hands to your knees, and start to fold the hips and lengthen your spine. One more inhale and exhale, with bent knees, release the trunk down, you can fold your elbows and just hang in ragdoll for a moment. Then hands on your shins, straightening the back and straightening the legs. Take a breath in and exhale, a soft forward fold, let your hands hang into the ground.

And then hands to the hips, inhale, come up, exhale, relax. Inhale arms again, exhale, ragdoll, bend the knees, fold at the hips, and catch the elbows again, release your head, release your neck. Then hands on shins, inhale, straightening the legs, lengthen your spine, exhale, release your hands, release your head, firm legs. Then hands on hips, inhale, come up, relax your arms. Inhale arms, straight legs, forward fold.

Inhale hands on shins, lengthen your spine. And again, exhale, forward fold, this time, can you reach your hands to the floor, in line with the feet, or maybe even behind the feet? And then hands on hips, inhale, come up again, exhale, relaxing. Let's continue then, a little bit more, inhale, arms up, exhale, forward fold. Inhale to look forward and lengthen the spine.

Again, exhale, forward fold, hands at your comfortable position. Then inhale, once again, look forward, exhale, bend the knees a little, we'll step back into a plank. Big breath in, exhale halfway down, chaturanga, dandasana, hold here, holding, a little bit of strength, building that heat quickly. Big breath in, now listen, exhale, push back up into a plank. Another big breath in, exhale, halfway down.

If you need to be on knees for this, that's perfectly fine, pick the pose that works for you. Inhale, breath in, exhale, back up, oh yeah, here comes that heat. One more time, breath in, exhale, halfway down, holding there, again, could be on knees if you need to be, inhale, exhale, push up, and to dog pose. Take a few breaths here, nice opportunity to pedal the legs, open up a little bit in the hips, in the heels, in the calves. Arms are strong, reaching, helping to open the spine.

Couple more times with pedaling. And then let's raise both heels high into the air to help deepen that hip hinge, releasing the back of the head, releasing the back of the neck, and then stretching the heels down with that length in the spine. And inhale, come forward, exhale halfway down, to up dog, inhale, pause there for a breath. Ready back to chaturanga, very strong, hold there, and again, up dog. And one more time, chaturanga.

Here we go, big push, inhale, exhale, pushing up, and dog pose. Take one more big breath, bend the knees, come down for an easy child's pose to catch your breath. Let the breathing slow down, and then coming back up. You'll find that dog pose again. Take a few breaths here, hopefully you're starting to feel that heat too.

And then looking forward, raise your heels, exhale, step the feet to the front, and feet together now. Inhale, squat down, arms up, Utkatasana, holding here, we're going to hold for a little while. This is the first part of our standing pose, Bonanza. Nice strong legs, thighs together, arms lifting, and just watch out for an excessive push in the mid-back. You want to keep the spine long, both front and backside.

Then come all the way up, release your arms, mountain pose, Tadasana. Then we'll collect a strap, and we'll start working into our standing balances. I'm going to start here with the right leg on the floor, left leg in the strap. And then holding that strap, we'll extend the left leg. We worked a lot on this in our balancing sessions.

We're now going to integrate that here into power. Reach strongly down to that standing leg, and push into the strap with your lifted left leg. Then taking that left leg out to the side, steady, there we go, holding there, and then back to center. Final challenge in this side, pass the strap into the right hand, we're going to try rotation. Turning the chest over to the left, we'll just keep the eyes right over the top of the left toes.

And then come to center, bend the knee, and come out of the strap. I'm going to turn to the side so you can get a good view on the other direction. This time the right foot is in the strap, we'll bring the leg up, find that balance, hold the strap near to the ankle, and let's start extending that leg. Once again, push strongly down through your standing leg, and strongly into that right foot and strap. Let's try the side balance.

This is my challenging side, as you've seen in some of our previous practices. Holding there, and then coming back into center, let's see if we can do it past the strap to the other hand, and got it, and then we turn. We try to turn, there we go, holding, holding, holding, and then bend the knee, release, and taking the foot out. That is a strong first challenge. We can put the strap away, and back onto our mat as we work into warrior two, wide legs.

We'll start to the right side, left toes in, right leg out, stretch your arms. So that earth element, foundation, strength, work into the ground, lift up and out evenly, balancing right and left sides. Take a breath in, exhale, right knee bending. Nice strong pose here, warrior two. So we engage the floor.

We push the floor to feel like we've got that uplift in the body. To reverse warrior, left hand down to the thigh, right arm comes up and over, still with that engagement in the floor, so we have that inner lift, we're not sinking in the pose, breathing, and then coming up, stretch out the arms and straighten the leg, turn the feet in, hands on the hips, take a breath. To the second side, right toes in, left leg out, arms out, press into the floor to get that inner lift, that air up into the body. Big breath in, exhale, left leg, warrior two. Reconmit to that connection to the floor so you feel that you're supported upwardly and we're holding.

To reverse warrior, right hand down to the thigh, left arm comes up and over, keep that inner support and we're lifting. Inhale coming into your warrior two, exhale your way out and then walk the feet together. Take a minute, mountain pose, let your breath cool. And then wide legs again. Going to the right side, we're in side angle pose, left toes in, right leg out.

Stretch the arms on an inhale, exhale, bend that right knee. Now we're extending the trunk over the right leg, hand to the floor, or if you need a moment to grab a block for support, now's a good time. We're going to be moving into triangle pose and half moon next. Good, let's take the top arm over, turn the left hand to face over the head and reach. In this pose as well, we need that connection to the floor so we feel the whole lift into the body.

Eventually, we connect that inner lift and space to mental quietness, holding there. And then top arm up, triangle pose, push straight back with that right leg, keeping the depth of the trunk, triangle pose. Turn and look up, still well connected to the floor, inner lift and support, and definitely starting to feel that heat. Then we'll take the top hand, left hand down to the hip, turn and look at the floor and bend your right knee. Stretch out the right hand a little further than the toes, walk in with the back foot, right hand out a little further, walk in with the back foot, trunk is open, arda chandrasana, half moon pose, balance, strength, and that inner fire of practice.

If your balance is steady and you'd like to take the left arm up, you can give that a shot. You can practice with a new gaze point wherever you feel steadiest. And then top hand down, bend the front knee, graceful landing. Come up, just stretch out the arms, feet squared ahead, and rest the hands on the hips. We're going into the second side, right toes in, left leg out 90 degrees, stretch the arms, we start in side angle pose.

Press well into the floor, big breath in, exhale, left knee bending, extend the trunk over the left side. Again if you're needing a block, please take it, otherwise here we go, top hand, turn and reach over. Can you feel how when you press into the floor, that inner lift comes all the way through the body to the top of the head? We're going to be diving a lot more into this as we progress through our next two themes. So I want to tap that feeling now, get you starting to think about that.

Triangle pose, right hand up into the air, and we slowly push the left leg to straight while we keep that depth of fold in the body. Make any little adjustments you need to make. Sacrum and tailbone, you've heard me talk a lot about reaching down toward that right heel and holding. Can you turn and look up? The ability to turn the neck is a function of how we're working the hips.

Pressing that left hip in, turning the pelvis up. Top hand to your hip, bend the left knee. Reach the hands a little further than the toes, walk in with the back foot. Reach the hand a little further again, walk in with the back foot. Turn the hips open, chest open, half moon pose.

Find your steadiness. Hips turning open, chest turning open. Top arm up if that is available to you. Can practice shifting your gaze a little. And then top hand to the hip.

Find your standing leg, graceful landing, and come up. Stretch the arms for a little recovery. That space is what gives us the recovery. And hands on hips. Let's get one more moment's pause in mountain pose.

Connect with the ground. Look for that inner space. And then once again, wide legs. Warrior one, stretch up the arms. Turn well deeply with that left leg and the right leg out so we're facing along the length of the mat.

Big breath in, exhale, bending the right knee. Warrior one. If you need to, you could turn up the left heel off your mat. For some it allows much deeper expression of this pose. And then left hand to your left thigh, exalted warrior lifting up.

Looking up, remember everything from a strong foundation. And then coming back up to warrior one, now hands down to your hips interlacing the fingers behind the back. Big breath in, now we're folding the trunk down to the inside of the right leg. Hands coming up as high as you can, humble warrior. Releasing the head, releasing the neck.

And then again, hands to hips, we're bringing the trunk up. We'll sweep the arms up to finish and then straightening the leg. Release your hands and turn to center. Take a minute in your wide leg pose, then right toes deeply turned in. Left leg out, arms up, big breath in, left knee bending.

Breathing. Right hand to the right thigh, exalted warrior lifting up. Lift the front of the pelvis, tailbone down. If you can look up, please do. Keep the breath moving.

And then coming back up to a full warrior one, hands to the hips, interlace your fingers behind your back. Big breath in and exhale folding, little adjustment for me, folding the trunk down. Let it back, lift your arms. Releasing your head, release your neck. And then coming back up, full warrior one to finish this side.

Inhale straighten the legs, exhale release, let's heel toe to mountain pose. Take a little step apart, reach up, grab the elbows, bend your knees, fold into ragdoll. Knees bent, take some breaths, little recovery here. Then hands on the hips and come all the way up. For our next two poses, we will be using blocks for a little extra stability.

Let's grab those two blocks and we'll place them at the head of the mat. Our first stop is warrior three. We'll take up the right leg. And working on just lifting that leg and considering the balance of this pose. So then come into warrior three, move your weight back a little so you feel fully supported by the standing leg and we'll try to bring up airplane arms.

And then hands to the block, bring the leg down, pause for a moment. Same leg lifting, right leg up. We'll bring the right block in just a little further and now rotated half moon. Let's put the left hand on the left hip and begin to turn the chest open to the left side. Carrying on from our twisting from last session.

Roll the back body toward the mat and then release and come down. Let's take a minute to stand, refresh the legs. And to the second side, hands to the bricks, feet together. We'll take the left leg up, balancing. And then to enter warrior three, we'll move the weight back, fully bearing the weight on the right leg and working into airplane arms.

And then release, bring the foot down for just a moment, we'll recover. And again, left leg up. We'll move the left block in just a little bit more, right hand to your right hip. Press down firmly through your right leg and turn, chest open to right side. And then turning to center, release the leg, slowly up, little recovery pose.

And then relaxing, let's put the blocks off to the side. Our standing, final standing pose in this series is going to be figure four in the galavasana. A very challenging pose that we'll be building off bhakasana that we did before and side crow pose. Parjval bhakasana. We'll start with left leg in figure four.

Standing leg is bent. And you can follow me along with this and pausing where you feel that that is your edge. Next step will fold from the hips, hands to the floor. From here, we try to bring the left shin as high up on the triceps, even into the armpits as possible. Again, you might pause here or carry on with me by moving the standing leg back a little and bend your two arms.

In all of your weight into your arms, push the left shin heavily against the triceps. We hover what was the supporting leg. If you feel like you can balance, you extend that right leg and hold. Bring the standing leg back in, touchdown. Take a breath.

If you need two hands on knees to recover, second side, you ready? Here we go. Right leg across the left. Hands on the leg just to support for a moment as you fold halfway into the pose. Then folding from the hips, take the hands to the floor.

This part's important. You got to get that right shin as high up into the backs of the arms as possible. Then bend the elbows as you bear as much weight as you can on your right shin. Then slowly stepping your supporting leg out, balancing step. If it's available, we try to extend the left leg.

And then landing and release. We'll keep the head down for this soft knees, ragdoll. And then hands on knees, lift your chest, look forward. And come up to full standing. Now that is a standing pose, Bonanza.

It's time for a little recovery work. We're going to do that in Prasarita Padottanasana, wide leg forward fold. But I'd like you to get a few things, maybe a block, perhaps an additional blanket that we'll be using for head support. So let's start by taking a nice wide stance. And what we'll be trying to do is bringing the head down to the floor.

So if you can bring the head all the way to the floor, that's your pose. If you find that your flexibility is such that you can only come to here, you could work with a brick or add a blanket as needed. So now that you've seen that, let's take the pose. Forward fold, find something that you can rest your head on. We're going to hold this for just a little while and let the body recover in this inversion.

Strong legs pressing the floor, shoulders lifting up away from the ears. Strong legs pressing the floor, helping to lift the hips, making a long trunk, and shoulders lifting up from the ears. And then raise your head, straightening the arms. We'll keep the head level with the floor rather than standing all the way up. And we'll heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe the feet together and come down into a comfortable seated position for just a moment.

We'll recover. Great job on all those standing poses. We're now going to take a really deep recovery pose called Viparita Karani. And we'll be using one block to do this. Let's set it up by lying down first, knees bent.

And we'll take the block at its medium setting that I'm showing here. Raise the hips and place the block underneath the sacrum. We'll just take a second here to organize, tucking the shoulders. Make sure you feel nice and supported by the block. And then, one knee at a time, bring the legs up.

And you'll need to choose here now if you're going to stay with bent knees or if you'd like to extend the legs straight up. If your hip flexibility is such that when you try to straighten the legs, your trunk collapses into the floor, then straight legs is not for you today. If you would prefer to just go into a traditional Shavasana instead of this pose, then please do that as well. I'll be coaching here from Viparita Karani, but I want this to be a restful pose for you, not a struggle. So find what works best.

Rest lightly supported by the shoulder blades. Legs lifted but not really engaged or trying to let the heat from our practice cool down. Abdomen should be soft and passive. Viparita Karani means upside down lake or topsy-turvy lake in reference to that abdomen being completely still like the bottom of the lake. And then bend the knees.

One by one, release your feet to the ground. Raise the hips. Take the block away and set the hips down on the mat for just a moment. You can rest your hands on the tummy. And then turn to the side.

We'll stay there for just a breath or two. And then pressing yourself up to a comfortable sitting position. I hope you enjoyed that standing pose series. We've had a couple of wonderful days together, this theme of power, building all of that internal heat and fire. I would love to know how you did in this theme.

Please stop for a moment and leave a comment behind if you have some time. I'd love to hear from you. Next step for us is flexibility, where we take all of the elements we've been working with so far and now move much deeper into some poses that I think you'll really enjoy. Have a fantastic day. See you soon.